1953 Royal tour. First tour by a reigning monarch when Queen Elizabeth toured in late 1953

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Population

1770 Maori population estimated to range from 100,000 - 250,000.

1840European. About 1,000 English settlers arrived at Port Nicholson in the first wave of New Zealand Co. Settlement

1856 European, According to a census taken there were 48,193 Europeans in Zealand including 2062 Military personnel, distributed area wise as follows
Auckland Province 33,8% Wellington Province 22.5%
Nelson Province 16.5% Canterbury Province 13.5%
Otago Province 8.3% New Plymouth 5.4%

57% of these groups were male.

1857Maori. A census showed some 60,000 Maoris in Zealand. A dramatic fall in numbers since the coming of the pakeha.

1861 Chinese. First Chinese Market gardeners admitted to New Zealand.

1871Census. There were almost 267,000 Europeans, 65% of whom were literate.

1874 The 19th Century's largest year for immigrationwith 32,118 assisted settlers arriving mostly in the South Island.

1901 For the first time since 1858 there were more people in the North Island (390,778) than in the South Island (3811,941)

1921 The population of Auckland reached well over 157,000.1945 Maori. The Maori population reached just over 100,000.

1966 The Maori population was just over 200,000.

1971 Auckland was the largest city with almost 700,000 people, Wellington next with 324,000,

Christchurch with 302,600. Dunedin was the fifth with 117,700 whilst Hamilton became the fourth largest urban area with 136,000.

1973 New Zealand's population reached 3 million.

1975 Assisted immigration to New Zealand ended.

since 1955 more than 82,000 assisted and subsidised migrants had arrived of whom 93% were British and 4% were Dutch.

1981 The population of New Zealand was recorded at 3.17 million.

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Settlement

1792 A base at Dusky Sound, Marlborough established by sealers.

1795 The Brig Fancy loaded a cargo of kauri spars from the Coromandel Peninsula and returned to Sydney after three months in the Thames estuary cutting the timber. This was the first shipment of timber to leave New Zealand. At this time Flax was also traded with the Maoris for iron.1796Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796-`862 who master minded the colonisation schemes of the New Zealand Company born in this year. Wakefield who later had an influence on the settlement of Canterbury did not set foot in the country whose settlement he promoted until 1852. Wakefield had to operate behind the scenes shielded by the Company's directors because of the notoriety he gained from the abduction of a schoolgirl heiress in 1826.
It was while serving a three year sentence that he formulated his theories of systematic colonisation, aiming at a balance between capital and labour. He believed that to succeed a
colony had to attract capitalists and the way to do this was to assure them that labour would be available to work on and add value to the property in which they had invested. His theory was that land should be sold at a price beyond the means of labourers but their migration could be encouraged by the expectation of one day buying land with their savings. In practice, few of Wakefield's principles were ever put into effect as in order to raise funds the Company allowed and encouraged investment by speculators who had no intention of migrating. The Company's main achievement was to send out 8600 migrants who endured considerable hardship. Two of Wakefield's brothers played prominent roles in the early years. Arthur was the Company's agent in Nelson and was killed in the Wairau Affray; William was the principal agent in New Zealand and was in effect the leader of the Wellington settlement.